Specific deterrence, yes. General deterrence, I doubt it, but it's irrelevant. And overall the system is flawed and the risk of mistake too great for me to support it.

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Agreed. Take the Death by Fire case that Dateline did a story about. The man was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for killing his daughters in a house fire. It was only after he was put to death that they discovered he was innocent.

Someone who is going to commit murder is either not going to want/plan to be caught, so they won't consider the consequences of their crimes, or they fully expect to be caught and do it anyway, knowing that they'll face the consequences. Most are the former, especially when the crime is committed in a moment of passion without thought.

From statistics I've seen, it also costs more to execute a person than it does to keep in in prison for life. Not to mention that the number of people who have been executed - only to be proven innocent of the crime they were convicted for - is far too high.

Doesn't it blotch the moral integrity and claim to justice of the executors when they themselves are arguably guilty of the same crime, taking innocent life?

Apologies, I derailed from the question there. No, I don't believe capital punishment deters people from crime.